Playing Favorites
by TheShoelessOne
Summary: Three years ago, Juliet Burke arrived on the island, and Daddy got a new favorite.
1. Juliet Arrives

**Chapter One: Juliet Arrives**

Something was going on, and it looked to be exciting.

Groups of people moved quickly from house to house, and excited murmur about them. The pair of barefooted teenagers melded slowly into their midst, looking equally unaware of the situation. The boy leaned into the girl to speak in lowered tones, even though they were both sure they wouldn't be heard anyway.

"Your father tell you anything?"

"No," she answered. After a moment, she changed her answer to: "I don't remember."

She took his hand assuredly, both sets of fingers dirty intertwining. They quickened their steps and weaved past Danny and Colleen without a word. Danny turned quickly after the teenagers and raised his voice.

"Alex!"

The girl stopped in her tracks and turned, the boy's fingers still clutched in hers. Once he had her attention, Danny continued with the words she knew were coming:

"Ben's looking for you."

Alex nodded, and the teens turned together for the house they knew too well.

Karl never was fond of visiting Alex when Ben was in, and he didn't seem too keen on entering now that the man was looking specifically for his daughter. It was only two months ago, at Alex's thirteenth birthday party, that Karl had pecked a kiss to the girl's cheek. He'd never seen Ben's eyes go as wide and dark as they had then, and half the knuckles of his fingers had cracked as he pulled them into quick fists.

As luck would have it, Ben was waiting for them on the porch, sitting in one of the dual wicker chairs with a sheaf of loose papers in his hand. A breeze caught the papers as Alex and Karl arrived together on the porch, causing Ben's eyes to rise. He lowered his round glasses slowly and swept his eyes over the state of his muddied daughter and who was attached to her hand.

"You look like you've risen from the dead, Alex," Ben said with the tweak of a smirk. Alex found herself thoughtlessly mirroring. Karl looked pale. Ben's smile faded as his eyes fell to rest on the boy, lids narrowing. "Karl."

"Mister Linus," Karl muttered, lowering his eyes to his bare feet.

"I'm afraid I'd like to speak to Alex alone, if you don't mind, Karl," Ben said, sitting up straight and adjusting his glasses back up the bridge of his nose. "I believe Ryan needs some help down at the Ferry."

Karl nodded, wordless. Alex and Karl spoke through their eyes--worry and assurance hand-in-hand. His fingers slipped from hers.

"See you later," he said in a low tone before he turned and hopped down the porch steps and into the grass. She watched him go until he disappeared behind a yellow house and was gone. With a twirl of her dark curls, she turned to her father.

"What's going on, Daddy?" she asked as she sank into the secondary wicker chair beside him. "Looks like the whole camp is going crazy."

Ben placed a hand at Alex's chin to turn her face and observe the mud splotches that trailed up into her hairline. He sighed, an immovable smirk having returned to his mouth.

"_My_ daughter," he muttered, shaking his head. Alex rolled her eyes playfully and brushed his hand aside to fix him with a probing stare. "All right," he caved nearly immediately. "We've got a visitor coming in."

Alex looked around, as if expecting someone to spring from the jungle. "From where?" she asked at last.

Ben held up the papers he had been leafing through on her arrival. "A long ways away. The mythical land of Miami."

She laughed, though she wasn't sure why.

"She's a doctor, Alex," Ben said, his face moving into seriousness. "A fertility doctor--that is, a baby doctor."

"I know what fertility means, Daddy."

"Right." His eyes dropped for a moment. "Her name is Doctor Burke. Now, Doctor Burke is going to be arriving at the Ferry in a few hours, and I'm going to be there to greet her. I'd like you to come with me."

Alex nearly laughed, then asked simply: "Why?"

Ben offered only a single chuckle, an odd sound by itself. "Because you're my daughter."

It was Ben and Alex alone that walked down the path to the Pala Ferry two hours later, the latter with her hands in her pockets and her bare feet kicking at stray pebbles. On occasion, she would lean down to scoop up a good-sized rock and stick it in her pocket for later.

"Why d'we need a baby doctor?" Alex asked at once. She was looking at the leafy greenness around them at the same time she stared her father down.

Ben's brow drew down in concentration and he didn't meet her inquisitive eyes. Alex removed her stare to the sky above them, peeking in through the heavy foliage.

Alex hoped that Doctor Burke was ugly. She hoped that she was a rude woman, shrewish and not at all entertaining. But most of all, she hoped that Doctor Burke was ugly. She couldn't immediately explain why, if someone asked her. Ben had explained several things to her on their journey down, on the porch, and in-between. She liked that he didn't talk down to her. He talked down to Karl (which she didn't particularly like) and he might talk down to Danny, but never to her.

Alex liked the way things were. She didn't think a change was going to help anything. Except maybe the babies.

"You know why we need a baby doctor, Alex," he replied at last. The look he fixed her with was stuck somewhere between sadness and uneasiness.

Alex's lower lip poked out, which raised Ben's eyebrows.

"Watch that lip," he advised. "You might catch it on something."

"Yeah, yeah," she said, unable to keep her pout as the niggling smile crept up. "Or you'll fling me around the room."

Ben nodded as seriously as he could manage. "Exactly."

The sun reflected perfectly on the water when the two of them arrived at the edge of the jungle, with the beach and the Ferry spreading out before them. The submarine was already docked at the far end, stationary and cold. Ben leaned slightly to Alex's height to mutter: "Should take her a few minutes to get her land legs. Don't make fun."

"Promise," Alex returned, hoping that Doctor Burke walked like a duck.

Karl appeared beside them, followed by Ryan, both looking even dirtier than before. Karl smiled wide at Alex's minute wave that her father didn't catch.

"Has Ethan reported in?" Ben asked Ryan, stepping away from the teenagers.

"Said that Burke is stirring. Should be out in another minute or so."

"Good," Ben replied, eyes locked on the sub jutting from the ocean.

As if on cue, the hatch to the sub opened with a squeal, and a frazzled blonde head appeared from inside. Alex frowned. She was blonde.

When Ben took his first step forward, Alex made as if to follow. Ben steadied her shoulder with one hand, telling her, "I'll bring her down the dock. You wait here, I won't be long."

The briefest pause ensued when Alex's eyes flicked from her father's to the woman crawling down from the submarine. "Okay," she murmured, hardly above her breath.

Ben tweaked her ear fondly before stepping past her and walking briskly down the dock to meet Doctor Burke, who didn't walk like a duck. She couldn't see his face or hear what they said from her distance, but she saw Doctor Burke's pretty smile pull back at whatever Ben had to say. She nodded, said something back and shook his hand rather enthusiastically. Alex's lower lip slipped out again.

Before she realized that she had been staring rather heatedly at the pair of them, they stood nearly directly in front of her. Ben's hand rested calmly on the girl's shoulder, and he squeezed gently as he turned to face Doctor Burke.

"And this is my daughter, Alex."

Doctor Burke smiled, bright white teeth set in a pretty face and surrounded by pretty blonde curls. She held out her hand, a hand that looked like it hadn't chopped firewood or shot a slingshot or rolled in the mud with her best friend.

"Please, just Juliet," she said, her voice sugary sweet.

She wasn't ugly and she didn't walk like a duck. Alex flicked her eyes from Juliet to Ben, whose eager smile had faded at Alex's glare. At the tilt of his eyebrows, Alex pulled out her own sappy smile and took Juliet's hand.

"Nice to meetcha, Doctor Juliet."

As they broke their uneasy handshake, Ben and Juliet moved away together, the former glancing over his shoulder to gesture for Alex to follow as he continued to speak with Doctor Burke about their facilities.

She ignored Karl's silent inquiry by taking his hand and trudging after her father and the fertility doctor. This was going to be a _very_ long six months.

* * *

AN: Hello folks! It's meee. Since Ben is living in my head (and someone requested it!) I'm writing a Ben-Alex multichap! It looks like it's gonna focus mostly on Ben and Alex, mostly from over Alex's shoulder, but there'll be plenty o' Juliet (and some other Others! GEDDIT??) and some stuff Ben's POV. I'm not sure exactly where I'm taking this, or how much time it'll cover, but I'm looking forward to it. Lemme know what you think so far, if Alex is okay (she's older, but not yet spiteful!Alex... I believe this will chronicle her turning point at some time...) and all that jazz. Leave us some love, and STAY AWESOME!


	2. Dinner Party

**Chapter Two: Dinner Party**

Juliet Burke's first day had been eventful. After the first two hours, it started to rain. Ben's mouth had turned down and his step quickened almost as if it were instinct. The entire Barracks were in a hurry to pull everything inside.

Juliet had turned to Alex, who had stayed three steps behind her father through the tour, and asked why everyone seemed so concerned. The girl looked straight up at the sky when she answered:

"The rain's never a good thing. Not here, anyway."

She fixed Juliet with a wispy smile and walked quicker to keep up with her father. Karl encouraged Juliet to pick up the pace as Alex caught up with Ben. His smile found its way back as he pulled her close with an arm around her shoulder, the other arm up to shield the both of them from the rain.

"What's that mean?" Juliet asked, accepting Ryan's arm as he pulled her along through the steadily increasing deluge.

"Nothing you need to worry yourself about, Doctor Burke," Ryan replied, shielding his own eyes. "Alex has an overactive imagination, is all. Yanking on your chain." He smiled widely to prove his words, and Juliet slowly reciprocated.

They all took refuge on Ben's porch, crowded in around the wicker chairs and staring out at the steely curtain of rain. The world was quickly turning silver and brown around them. Ben still held Alex close against his side, watching the rain with his mouth slant in disappointment. Karl shook the rain out of his hair while Juliet wrung the moisture from hers.

"Hell," Ryan muttered, "think we'll be flooded out?"

"Is it always like this?" Juliet asked.

"Only when it rains," Ben replied dryly, still watching the downpour. Alex giggled, her shoulders shaking under his arm.

Juliet's eyes turned to him, and he raised his eyebrows at her in turn.

"That's a joke, Juliet."

The rain tapered off quickly, dripping still from the roof around them and leaving the world suddenly and oddly silent. Juliet poked her head out and looked up at the sky, that seemed to return too quickly to its previous misty gray-blue.

"Ryan," Ben said, unlooping his arm from around Alex's shoulders, "get a hold of The Flame and see if we're going to get any more of these outbursts, won't you?"

Ryan nodded. "I'm on it." He strode out into the muddied grass with a ginger step, as if afraid to splash.

"Why so eager for the weather report?" Juliet asked, shifting her weight in an awkward way. Alex hid a triumphant little smirk--they made her nervous.

"We don't want to ruin dinner," Ben replied. He left it open as he turned away to the teenagers. "Karl, walk Doctor Burke back home."

"It was nice meeting you, Alex," Juliet offered as Karl started down the porch steps. Alex nodded noncommittally. The woman turned back as she stood on the first step. "Oh, and thank you again for the flowers, Ben."

"You're welcome," he said to her back, eyes lingering between her shoulder blades.

Flowers? Alex's head shot up, looking halfway perturbed. When did she miss the exchange of flowers? When her father had sent her off to fetch Karl and Ryan up from the Ferry? Her eyes went to him as he stood in the open doorway of their home, watching his daughter expectantly as if he had said something and she missed it. Why send her away for flowers? It stuck somewhere in her heart as she shoved it away and tucked stray hair behind her ear.

"What?" she asked for clarification.

"I said wash up, young lady," Ben repeated, gesturing widely for her to step inside. "And start with your ears."

"Why for?" she asked as she moved past him into the house. He closed the door after them, the echoes of rain still trickling from the gutters.

"You look like you live in a bog, that's why," he answered, smirking at her back.

"Why can't I look like I live in a bog?" She glanced over her shoulder as she pulled a fresh towel from the linen closet.

"We're getting together with some of the others for dinner," he said, examining his own drenched state sadly.

Alex lowered her eyelids dramatically. "A dinner party?"

"Something like that." He moved past her in the hallway, toward his own room. "Now, how many dinner parties get thrown in a bog?"

As he disappeared inside his room, she playfully shot back: "I won't like it!"

His voice was dulled by the walls as he retorted: "You're not supposed to."

She rolled her eyes only because he couldn't see her do so. She dragged herself into the bathroom and locked the door behind her.

She knew her father would be coming in after her, so she ran the water hot until it filled the tiny room with steam. When she crawled out of the shower and wrapped herself in towels, she ran her finger along the fog on the mirror with her tongue between her teeth in concentration.

Only minutes after she'd vacated to her room, Ben stood in front of the mirror, unbuttoning his shirt as he read her message with a fond shake of his head.

_I love you Daddy!_

Ben left his own shower fifteen minutes later, leaving behind him a second line etched in the fogged mirror, something that Alex caught out of the corner of her eye as they set off for dinner.

_Ditto, kiddo._

She had an extra bounce in her step as she walked alongside her father in the only dress she owned.

The sun hadn't gone down yet, which left an orange light to filter through the trees as the torches were lit. Several tables had been brought out and pressed together into one long line to accommodate several eaters at once. Tom was already there, laying out his offering of casseroles as he laughed at something Juliet had said. She stood nervously aside, her eyes flicking to Danny and Colleen as they arrived. Amelia revealed her cornbread with her normal flourish, and Ryan appeared with two turkeys, one serving plate to each hand.

"This gonna be enough?" Ryan asked with a laugh as he set them down near where Tom stood at the table.

Karl finished lighting the torches and skirted Ben to stand on the other side of Alex.

"Saved you a seat," he said in a hushed tone.

Alex grinned, her shoulders going up to match her lips. She glanced sideways at Ben, whose step had increased as he headed in Juliet's direction. Her smile fell only a notch, and she turned back to Karl as she took his hand.

"Sure," she said, reforming her grin.

"You look real pretty," he continued in his lowered voice.

"Thanks." She looked at her feet. Alex had only consented to wearing her single dress because Ben had allowed her to go barefooted. The ground was still spongy, and the mud squelched up through her toes, but she was careful not to splash.

She watched out of the corner of her eye as Ben approached Juliet, and the woman's face lit up at the sight of a familiar face. Alex felt her lower lip slip out, and she didn't check its movement. She allowed herself that much, at least knowing that her father would still put his arm around her and call her kiddo, and still loved her. That was the most important part.

Ben pulled out a chair for Juliet, who looked slightly flustered at the gesture.

"You've all been too nice," she said, looking up as he stood beside her chair. He shrugged, looking around at the company.

"Were you expecting something else?"

"No, I..." She grinned like a child, leaning in, hunched over, to murmur: "Just waiting for the other shoe."

Something in Ben's calm countenance shifted for only an instant, and he regained himself just as quickly. "No worries for tonight, Juliet. We're just trying to make sure you're comfortable before we get into any sticky business."

He took the seat next to her. He watched as Karl pulled out a chair for Alex directly across from Juliet, then took the seat across from Ben for himself. He smiled awkwardly and didn't meet Ben's eyes.

Just as Juliet picked up her fork, Alex cleared her throat loudly. When the older woman looked up, Alex had her hands folded in front of her, nodding minutely in her father's direction. Ben also had his hands folded, and the entire table had followed in suit. In the dimming light, it was hard to tell if Doctor Burke flushed pink or not. Alex certainly hoped so.

"Would you like to say grace, Juliet?" Ben asked.

After a pause that seemed to last too long, Juliet nodded. "All right." All eyes around her went closed at her acceptance. "Well, ah... Dear Lord," she began in an unsure voice, "I'd like to thank you for the safe journey. And for new friends." Another long pause, all eyes still closed. "And for the food."

"Amen!" Tom interjected, which brought a bubbling of laughter from the table. Juliet nodded.

"Right, that sounds as good a place as any. Amen."

There came an echo from every mouth, followed by the clatter of dinnerware as the dinner party finally began.

Movement went cold when a sound reverberated through the barracks, a loud lang of metal on metal, followed by a hollow howl that rumbled from the jungle. Juliet's fork clattered to the table.

Ben's eyes hung on the barely-visible edge of the sonic fence, flicking from tree to tree for sign of distress in the foliage. When nothing happened for another tense moment, Ben turned back to the table with a smile that covered his unease. Action at the table began again as if it had never stopped.

"Local fauna," Ben assured Juliet, cutting into one of Ryan's turkeys. "Nothing to worry about."

His eyes connected with Alex, and for only a moment, he dropped his facade. She nodded in return. They both returned to eating.

* * *

AN: Oh, I'm having so much fun with this :D THANKS SO MUCH!! to all my reviewers so far, you all make my heart so warm. I'll do my best to keep up with this, if it proves popular. There's a few things I definitely want to write in this, but length ultimately is still undetermined. Anyway, it's late and time for bed! Goodnight, hope you liked, leave us some love and STAY AWESOME!!


	3. Late at Night

**Chapter Three: Late at Night**

The lab was dark and quiet, the way she was used to working. In Miami, back in a time that felt separate from reality, she would watch as her coworkers filed out dragging their feet, shutting off their personal light sources and slowly darkening the lab. Janitors waltzed by with their mops and waist-high cans of rubbish to clean up, and Juliet was still there. When even they had finished, the rows of florescent lights overhead shutting down with hard metallic thunks, Juliet was still there. And Juliet was left alone, staring down into a microscope and switching slides methodically into the witching hour.

The lab here was smaller, darker, more intimate a setting than the sprawling workspaces she'd been used to on the mainland. Her papers took up the entire desk space and nearly spilled over. Her mug of coffee, long since cold, sat forgotten on the empty operating table. It'd gone unused for some time, Ethan said. It wasn't often they got sick. Only the pregnant women. Ethan had smiled then, something hollow, and squeezed her shoulder assuringly. Evan had asked if she would liked to be walked home, but Juliet had opted to stay late, shaking her head with blond curls still bouncing even after she'd pulled them back.

Research, she'd said. She wouldn't spend one second with a scalpel in hand until she'd done her research. The files she'd requested from Ben and Ethan lay open in front of her, dead women smiling back from their photographs of happier times, when their stomachs had rounded and something kicked back against the hand placed across their abdomens. Juliet ran a hand through her hair to recapture the curls that had escaped.

It was better that she hadn't known them. Made it easier.

A knock came to the lab door, and Juliet started up in her chair, eyes jolting away from the microscope. For a moment, everything outside the shaft of light from her desk lamp was a blur of black. Then, as her eyes adjusted, she saw a figure standing just inside the half-open door frame. She exhaled and sagged back into her chair. She waved the figure in with a labored movement.

"Didn't mean to frighten you," Ben said as he stepped into the light, looking only halfway sheepish. She only pulled back half a smile.

"Just startled," she corrected. Her eyes fell to his hands, where he supported something in a large paper bag. "What brings you this far from home?"

"Evan told me that you were staying late," Ben replied, running his eyes over the open files. "Doing your homework."

"Yeah," she said with a sigh, sagging even further. She nodded toward the brown paper bag in Ben's hands. "What's that?"

"Dinner," he told her as he set it down on the nearby examination table. As he pulled away the paper bag, he revealed a plate of what must have been leftovers from his own dinner. Nothing too exciting: a few slices of turkey, what might have been green beans and potatoes. The smell of it alone made Juliet's stomach ache. "I take it you're hungry?"

He handed her a plastic fork that matched her paper plate, and she smirked thankfully as she took the offering. As she pulled her chair up to the exam table and he took his own seat across the table from her, she shook her head.

"You didn't have to."

"I make it my business to take care of my people," he responded nonchalantly, staring down at her food rather than at her. "You're one of my people now, Juliet."

Eyes flicked up to meet hers just as she looked down to her plate. She shrugged, looking half-embarrassed, half-relieved. "Thank you."

"You're welcome," Ben replied, his own lips turning up as she dug into the potatoes. After only a short pause, he gave one low, harsh laugh. Juliet raised her eyebrow as she swallowed her last forkful.

"What?"

"You have a house, you know," he said as if to a child he needed to scold. Her shoulders straightened and she poked at her green beans.

"I didn't want to take the files back home. They were here and I was here." She took another bite. "Besides, it doesn't feel right to be doing work at home."

As if still laughing somewhere in his mind, Ben cocked his head interestedly at her. "Did you expect to be living in a lab for six months?"

She stirred her green beans into her potatoes, pointedly not looking up. In just two weeks she'd come to recognize the feeling of Ben's eyes hanging on her without having to see. "I don't know what to expect. Still."

Juliet continued to eat. After a pause, she glanced up to see Ben trying to look innocuous. "Thanks," she said again, awkwardly. She scraped the curls away from her eyes. "I should be fine here for a little bit longer. I'd like to finish up the file I'm working on. Besides," she added, "don't you have a daughter back home to look after?"

Ben stood, shrugging slightly. "She's not a child anymore, she doesn't need me to tell her when to go to bed and when to brush her teeth." He moved to the table where she had spread the files, turning one to get a look at the brown-haired woman whose time-frozen smile gleamed back, causing his own to fall. "I don't have to tell her bedtime stories anymore."

As Ben began to pack up the files Juliet had set aside, she finished her packed dinner in silence.

Alex pulled aside the curtains to peer outside. The sky had gone dark a long time ago, a full hour after her father had left to find Juliet in The Staff. The lights from the other houses stood out like fireflies in the night, with only the waning moon to light up the jungle. The treetops shimmered like the tips of clouds in a night sky, and it made her feel high and cold as if among them. Alex shivered as she stepped away from the window, before she allowed herself to stare too long into nothing.

Her bare feet--clean and mudless--paced the carpet of the living room, just in front of the sofa. Her arms were crossed, like some parent impatiently awaiting the return of child ignoring curfew. Her lower lip pouted out despite knowing better. Her eyebrows drew down, all consternation knotted between them.

A nearly soundless knock came to the front window, and Alex turned with hair billowing out around her. She recognized the top of Karl's head and his fingers waving to her, barely visible. She rolled her eyes and stepped quickly to the window. Kneeling down, she cracked the window open enough to allow his head admittance. He leaned in slightly, sweeping his gaze around.

"He's not here," Alex muttered, leaning her arms against the sill. Karl seemed flummoxed by this information.

"Your father?" He asked, as if unable to process. Alex laughed, lips finally turning up into a smile.

"No, _Tom_. We were having an after-midnight snack and he went off to get the punch."

"Not funny," he replied, although his own smile was turning up slowly. "Where is he, then?"

Alex's mouth fell again. "To find Doctor Burke. He said she forgot about dinner again."

Karl tried to bring her smile back with his own. "He'll be back soon."

"Yeah, and he'll kick your butt if he sees you here after dark," she giggled back. "Don't get in trouble, all right?"

"All right." He grinned wide, then ducked in through the window to fix her with a darting kiss. "Don't stay up too late. Your dad can look out for himself."

"I won't," she assured him. She held onto his hand as he pulled away, and their fingers slipped apart. He jumped off her porch and into darkness, his footsteps all he left behind him.

Alex always returned to the window, watching for any sign that Ben was returning. She looked for the spot of his flashlight on the grass, listened for the crunch of his shoes in the grass or step across the boards of the porch. She sat still at the windowsill for what felt like hours, although the clock didn't seem to chime once.

Doctor Burke. Alex frowned at the taste the woman's name had in her mouth. She refused to call her Juliet, as the doctor had asked. Even if her father hadn't thrown out the name as he stepped out the door, Alex would have guessed after long enough. It was always Doctor Burke. When he stepped out during their lunch break, he was taking a sandwich to Doctor Burke. When she heard the door close at some unknown hour of the early morning, when the sun had barely touched the sky, he was going to see Doctor Burke. Said that he'd found some nugget of information he'd forgotten to tell her, some revelation about her duty on the island he needed to share with her.

She wasn't good with a joke; Alex had let one fly about an astronaut the other day and Juliet only managed the fainted twitch of a smirk. The smirk she seemed to reserve just for Alex. Doctor Burke wasn't even all that pretty, Alex muttered to herself on several occasions. The woman was charming her father away from her bit by bit, and Alex wasn't going to have it.

She was going to wait until her father got home from Doctor Burke and tell him. Alex was going to tell her father exactly what she thought of Doctor Burke. Just as soon as he got home.

The lights were on when Ben arrived, quietly shutting the door behind him. As he stepped in and began turning out the lights, he found his daughter draped on the sofa, breathing softly and steadily. The window nearest the door was half open, and on his way to the sofa, Ben closed and latched it softly.

He made no sound as he pulled an extra blanket from the linen closet and spread it over Alex's sleeping form, and he switched off the lamp, throwing the house into complete darkness. He knelt down to tuck her in, no longer smiling. She might have felt proud of the sadness she'd etched in his brow without even trying. He brushed the hanging strands of hair from her face and pressed a kiss to her forehead.

She stirred slightly, taking a breath through her nose and shifting. He tucked her hair behind her ear to whisper, "I love you, Alexandra."

Alex smiled in her sleep, wrapped the blanket around her shoulder and turned inward to face the cushions of the sofa. Ben whispered a single laugh and stood from his knees, unbuttoning his shirt cuffs.

"Good night, Dad," he muttered back to himself, smirking as he strode through darkness into his room.

* * *

AN: Hey, folks, sorry for the delay! I'm getting this in between the last day of classes and finals week, so I prolly won't have more up until I get home from college. It took me a while with this one, not sure why, but I like how it turned out, methinks. I need to watch "One of Us" again before I write any more, I think, or at least study Lostpedia like crazy (that's where I get all my info on The Others like Ryan and Evan, so yeah, in case you were wondering :P). The beginnings of creepy!Ben and Juliet becoming wary of said creepiness. Tell me if you think everyone is crazy OOC or if you love it. (BTW, what's up with all the Submit Your Original Character Lostfic? That's wack.) Stay awesome, everyone!


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